BATON ROUGE – LSU forward Jordan Mickey is one of nine freshmen announced on Friday as on the midseason watch list for the 2014 Integris Wayman Tisdale Award presented by the United State Basketball Writers Association.

Members of the association’s board of directors chose the players to be included on the list as contenders for the national freshman of the year award. The award is to be presented to the national freshman of the year at the Devon Energy College Basketball Awards on April 14 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

The USBWA has chosen a national freshman of the year since the 1988-89 season when LSU’s Chris Jackson (Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf) was the recipient.

Mickey, who has twice been named the Southeastern Freshman of the Week, is averaging 13.1 points per game and 7.3 rebounds a game. He is averaging 31.4 minutes per game. He is ranked 20th in the league in scoring and eighth in rebounds. He has made 93-of-163 shots from the field for a percentage of 57.1, second in the SEC. Mickey has scored in double figures in all but two of his 17 games and in his last game against Missouri on Tuesday, he posted his fifth double double with 14 points and a season-equaling 13 rebounds.

Mickey is also on pace to become just the second LSU player other than Shaquille O’Neal to block 100 shots and he leads the league in blocks per game at 3.5.

Mickey was named to the five-player All-SEC team named by Collegehoopsdaily.com for non-conference play in the league.

Two other SEC players join Mickey on the nine-player midseason watch list: Julius Randle of Kentucky; and, James Young of Kentucky. That gives the SEC three players and that is the best of any league.

The late Wayman Tisdale was a three-time USBWA All-American at the University of Oklahoma. Following a stint on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Basketball team, he played 12 seasons in the NBA before retiring in 1997 to focus on a blossoming jazz music career. In March 2007, he was diagnosed with cancer and following a courageous and difficult battle that included the amputation of his right leg in 2008, he passed away in May 2009.